Pages

Friday, 21 March 2014

Book Review: Wool by Hugh Howey

When I first heard about Wool, I have to admit, I was a bit
skeptical. The premise just sounded a bit..well, odd. But trust me,
this book is well worth sticking with – it's amazing!

Wool is set in a post-apocalyptic future. The few survivors of
mankind now live together in a giant underground silo, but their
lives are controlled by rules, regulations and a strict hierarchy. If
anyone chooses not to conform, they're sent outside the silo for the
'cleaning' – a job that there's no return from. When Jules is
unexpectedly thrust into a prominent position within the silo, she
slowly begins to realise how rotten those at the heart of their
community are – but when you've been brought up to conform, will
anyone be brave enough to stand with her? Or is she entirely on her
own?

While the idea of an underground silo sounds interesting, I really
wasn't sure how it would work in practice. But once all the mechanics
of it was explained, and you see how everyone works together to keep
the silo running, I was hooked – especially once you find out what
happens 'outside' the silo, during the cleaning.

Jules is the strong, smart female protagonist who's not afraid to
speak her mind and does what she thinks is right, even if it goes
against everything the silo teaches her to believe. It's interesting
to see how she copes with a situation that is essentially thrust on
her when she didn't want it, and then how she deals with it when
everything (and I mean everything!) goes horribly horribly wrong.

This book was exceptionally well written – there were a couple of
occasions where the author seemed to go off on a slight tangent about
the background of the silo, or someone's particular job etc, but it
wasn't such a big deal that it detracted from the overall story. The
big twist in the story is just...amazing – while I had my
suspicions about what was going to happen, I was still shocked (and
thrilled) when they were confirmed. Despite it's slightly slow start,
I honestly couldn't put this book down; it was fast paced, full of
surprises and I really felt for all of the character's situations –
I even felt a limited amount of sympathy for the bad guy in all this
(Bernard), as Hugh Howey does a great job of explaining the
background/rationale behind all the character's motivations and
desires. I've already bought the second book in the trilogy, Shift,
and I can't wait to get my teeth into it!

Final comments: Although it might sound like a bit of an
odd/niche story, Wool is an exceptionally well written debut novel
from Hugh Howey and well worth checking out!